Colombia’s national regulatory agency, the Superintendency of Industry and Commerce (SIC), has fined pharmaceutical company Pfizer $25,000 for allegedly inflating the price of several prescription drugs it sold in that country.1 2 On July 31, 2019, the agency stated: The decision was taken after verifying information related to PFIZER SAS’ commercial operations between July and December […]

In a lawsuit filed by the state of Oklahoma against Johnson & Johnson, Inc., Purdue Pharma LP and Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd., the pharmaceutical giant Johnson & Johnson and its subsidiaries were ordered on Aug. 26, 2019 to pay $572 million in penalties for helping to fuel the opioid crisis in Oklahoma.1 Before the trial […]

Story Highlights Google, the world’s most widely used internet search engine, restructured itself to give semi-independence to its many subsidiary organizations under a new umbrella entity called Alphabet. Two of the divisions are focused on the business of medicine and operate in partnership with some of the world’s most powerful pharmaceutical companies that develop and […]

After the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) publicized measles outbreaks in several states beginning in January 2019, on May 1 Merck & Co. announced that it had increased production of its live attenuated (weakened) virus MMR (measles, mumps, rubella) vaccine in response to an increasing demand for the product in the United States. […]

Former Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Commissioner Scott Gottlieb, MD has joined the board of directors of Pfizer, Inc.—the world’s largest pharmaceutical company and second largest manufacturer of vaccines. Pfizer, which posted total revenues of $53.7 billion in 2018, announced Dr. Gottlieb’s election to the board on June 27, 2019.1 2 3 4 Dr. Gottlieb, […]

Merck & Co., Inc. reported a strong financial start to 2019, with an eight percent increase in it first-quarter earnings, due partly to vaccine sales. Worldwide sales for the pharmaceutical company in the first quarter reached $10.8 billion, up from approximately $10 billion in the first quarter of 2018. Merck attributed the overall growth to […]

The global vaccine market is forecast to reach $50.9 billion by 2024, according to a new study released by Market Study Report of Selbyville, Delaware. This projection would represent an increase of 30.45 percent over today’s vaccines market, estimated at $35.4 billion, or a compound annual growth rate of about 6.2 percent.1 2 The revenue […]

It might be time for people to reconsider before they spit in a tube. Online genetic testing services are wildly popular. Many people use services such as 23andMe and Ancestry.com to learn about their ancestral pasts. Many also use these services to gain more profound insights into their biological makeup, which is often used to […]

The global vaccine market is expected to surge to $57.5 billion by 2025, up from $33.7 billion in 2018, according to new figures from market research firm Research and Markets of Dublin, Ireland. The 7.9 percent compound annual growth rate (CAGR) predicted for the next 20 years is attributed to “increasing government initiatives towards immunization,” […]

U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) official Wellington Sun, MD has been hired by biotechnology company Moderna Therapeutics, Inc. of Cambridge, MA to head its Vaccine Strategy and Regulatory Affairs division. Dr. Sun was director of the Division of Vaccines and Related Product Applications at the FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research (CBER) where he […]